Colombia — Sisterhood of Huila Cooperative Castillo, Caturra & Colombia Field Blend (Washed)

Tastes Like — 🍐 Yellow Gooseberry • 🫐 Blueberry • 🌿 Rosemary

DETAILS

• Producer: Sisterhood of Huila Cooperative — Garzón smallholder farmers
• Region: Garzón, Huila, Colombia
• Varietal: Castillo, Caturra & Colombia Field Blend
• Process: Washed
• Drying: African Raised Beds

INTRO

A complex and expressive field blend from the Sisterhood of Huila Cooperative — a project born in 2017 to bring quality processing infrastructure and training to female smallholder farmers in Huila. Despite drawing on multiple producers and varieties, this lot is as complex and expressive as the finest single-farm lots. Super sweet and juicy throughout, with an abundance of ripe fruit and a subtle herbal finish. In the cup: yellow gooseberry, blueberry, and a hint of rosemary.

THE PRODUCER

In 2017, a larger cooperative operating in Huila launched an initiative to improve access to quality coffee processing infrastructure and education for female smallholder farmers in the region. The result was the formation of the Sisterhood of Huila Cooperative — a community of women producers organised around shared values and a commitment to quality. This specific lot draws on coffee harvested by producers whose farms surround the town of Garzón.

Members of the cooperative received lectures on quality cultivation and processing, and those who participated were rewarded with African raised drying beds — a direct and tangible investment in the infrastructure needed to improve cup quality at the farm level. The results have been significant: participating producers have seen a 20% increase in the market price paid for their coffees compared to non-participating producers in the same department.

The field blend brings together three of Colombia's most widely planted varieties — Castillo, a Caturra-Timor Hybrid cross developed by Cenicafé and first released in 2005 for its leaf rust resistance; Caturra, a natural Bourbon mutation first discovered in Brazil between 1915 and 1918; and Colombia, an earlier Cenicafé Caturra-Timor Hybrid cross released in 1982 that is widely credited with protecting the Colombian coffee industry following the arrival of leaf rust in the mid-1980s. Under careful cultivation and quality-focused processing, all three varieties are capable of producing beautiful, expressive cups at altitude — as this lot demonstrates convincingly.

THE PROCESS

The Washed process involves:

🍒 Hand-picking — Cherries selectively harvested at peak ripeness by Sisterhood co-operative members 🔧 Depulping — Outer skin removed before fermentation 🧪 Fermentation — Beans fermented to break down remaining mucilage 💧 Washing — Thoroughly washed after fermentation to remove all residue ☀️ African raised-bed drying — Dried on raised beds provided to members through the cooperative's quality programme

The African raised-bed drying is the defining step — a direct outcome of the cooperative's quality investment programme, raising the coffee off the ground to improve airflow and extend drying time, building the clean sweetness and expressive fruit character that define this lot.

THE CUP

A super sweet, juicy, and beautifully expressive field blend from one of Huila's most purposeful and community-driven cooperative projects — yellow gooseberry and blueberry fruit in abundance, with a subtle rosemary herbal finish that adds a distinctive and memorable complexity. A coffee as compelling for the story behind it as for what's in the cup.

Flavour Notes

🍐 Yellow Gooseberry 🫐 Blueberry 🌿 Rosemary